A classic design with updated appointments to make it even sweeter than the original!

The Rogue VB-100 violin bass guitar features a flamed maple arched top and back with the European-style hollowbody that makes it lightweight and capable of deep, resonant bass tones. The violin bass's traditional 31" scale offers immediate familiarity in your hands. A custom trapeze tailpiece, pearloid pickguard, and body binding on front and back are added touches. Don't be fooled by the tiny price; this Rogue a serious violin bass nicely made with all the playability and tone of the original at a fraction of the cost.

Case sold separately

FEATURES

Violin style hollowbody

Arched flamed maple top

Flamed maple body

Set-in neck joint

Hard rock maple neck

22 frets

Rosewood bridge with custom trapeze-style tailpiece

Mini humbucker bridge and neck pickups

Controls: dual volume; bass, mid, and treble switches

Die-cast tuners

Chrome hardware

Vintage sunburst finish

Pearloid pickguard

Front and back body binding

Traditional 31" scale length

Case sold separately

The style made famous by the Beatles. Now you can make it famous again. Order yours today.

The only reason I don't give this instrument a 10 is that the appearance of a crack in the neck really spooked me, and the bass needs a setup to really make it fly....Read complete review

The only reason I don't give this instrument a 10 is that the appearance of a crack in the neck really spooked me, and the bass needs a setup to really make it fly. I wish you could hear how this thing sounds, freshly set up and with my upgraded Marshall amp. The sound is loud (instrument has hot sounding pickups when played in the solo switch position) and the tone is awesome. I love it.The Rogue VB100 violin bass has all the features you want, if you want an incredibly good acoustic (big upright) bass sound. Other folks indicate this is is not a suitable bass for slap bass technique, but that is not my style anyhow.At first, I was greatly dismayed that there was an apparent crack at the heel of the neck, where the neck curves around and then joins the body. A luthier said it is not a crack, but rather a lamination joint, and the glue had oozed out just a trace, raising the finish just enough to make it visible. I'm no long as concerned on that matter. The good news is that you get an incredibly good sounding bass for a give-away low price. The bad news is that this instrument really needs a good set-up to make it play and sound professional. Being an amateur luthier, here are my hints:(1) The pickups are not adjusted properly. They should be 1/8 inch (three mm) from the bottom of the string to the top of the pickup, for both forward and rear pickup; this is done while you are pressing on the string at the last fret. Turn the small screw just to the side of the pickup bar clockwise to raise the pickup, and counter-clockwise to lower it. Here comes the rub. The rear pickup (close to the bridge) is way too low to allow enough adjustment to get it into specs! To fix this, go to the hardware store, and buy four mounting screws that are 1/4 inch longer. Buy eight small brass nuts, just big enough for the screws to slip through. Remove the existing screws, lift up the mount of the pickup, and use two nuts under each screw, with the nuts between the body of the bass and the bottom of the pickup mount. You are thus shimming up the pickup body with these nuts. You could use other material , but brass goes with the color of the bass body. Attach the pickup with your new, longer screws. Now you can adjust the pickup to get it into specs. (If you don't do this, the rear pickup will be too low, so it sounds kind of dead, and you will only be getting appreciable tone out of the front pickup.)(2) Replace the strings with flatwound. I like the Fender stainless steel light gauge full length strings. The are inexpensive, and sound like a million bucks.(3) Take a fine mill-cut file, and lightly file the frets, with the file laying flat across the frets, lengthwise with the instrument. This will level the frets. Use the file on any sharp fret edges at the side of the neck. (Do this before you put on the new strings!)(4) Remove the pickguard and fill the mounting screw holes with two small black-coated screws from a hardware store. You don't need a pickguard on a bass that is played with the fingers.(5) Put some thin oil on on the tuners, where the knkobs turn. From the factory, the tuners are squeeky and sound cheap. With the oil, they are much better.(6) Nut adjustment: Use a small set of files to lower the action on any strings that are too high. Excessive string height at the nut will throw off the intonation.(6) Adjust the intonation. With a chromatic tuner, play each string and then play it at the 12th fret. It should sound the same. If it is too low in pitch when played at the 12th fret, the bridge needs to be brought forward; if too high, move the bridge back. The bridge itself can be moved, and also the individual strings can be adjusted by removing the string, and moving the little fret piece the string sits on in the bridge, forward or back.

There are very some minor finish issues, which did not exist with my Korean model of this instrument. (This is made in China). The switches and knobs all work OK. For the INCREDIBLE tone and low price, I am not sweating out tiny finish issues.I think this Rogue violin bass is an absolute steal at the low price it is, considering that it is the best sounding bass I have ever heard, once I got it all adjusted. My Korean bass of the same model didn't sound this good, but then I was ignorant about the need to shim up the rear pickup. Also, after selling the Korean model, I put an Emminence Legend P102 speaker in my Marshall MB30 amp, giving an upgrade in sound.

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Most Liked Negative Review

Review by Dan

I give the guitar a 6 for overall rating due to cosmetic flaws by manufactuer. There were several cosmetic flaws which were very notable upon inspection of the instrument. There definitely needs...Read complete review

I give the guitar a 6 for overall rating due to cosmetic flaws by manufactuer. There were several cosmetic flaws which were very notable upon inspection of the instrument. There definitely needs to be more quality control in the factory that is assembling the guitar. Glue was sprayed over with clear coting and where the neck meets the body of the guitar and there were flaws in trim lines. There were wear marks on the headstock where the guitar was hung to dry.The price is the lowest on the market for a violin bass and the sound is great for the price paid, but should be priced lower due to consmetic issues. The guitar could be sold at a higher price if the cosmetic flaws could be corrected. Rogue should require quality inspections on the assembly line and not accept guitars in the condition that I received.

Despite what others have said, I've been using the strings that came on it for 7 months now. Problem was first time I unplugged it, the input jack came apart. Had a guy replace it and now I love it. Playing in two bands, and my other three basses are gathering dust.

The finish is absolutely beautiful. The flame maple shimmers in the light and the bass just feels great. It's really easy to set up. (Intonation and action) it sounds amazing. The pictures don't do this bass justice. Buy it. The stock strings are really grippy so I would get new strings for it but they aren't terrible. But overall its a fantastic bass

OK ....who has the funds to buy a Hofner . Not me ...but for the money , you can"t beat this lil axe ! Just put some flat wounds on this puppy , and it sounds great ! Great finish , solid hardware . BUY IT !

Back in the sixties, I'd dream of getting a Hofner but ended up with a Jazz Bass. Well, I saw this unit for sale here at Musicians Friend and jumped on it. It's not a Hofner but who cares; it looks like one, plays like one, and is soooo much less expensive. The color you see on the web site gives it no justice. Changed the strings, plugged it in, closed my eyes.... I'm the missing Beatle behind the scenes bass player once again. This one came out of the shop made for me.... it's flawless. Need it - Get it - Keep it.

This is definitely a great purchase, especially for a die-hard Beatles fan. The finish was slightly different than the image; the edges of the burst were darker, closer to black, and the top grain blows the image away. Truly incredible. One thing to note; I was extremely impressed that right out of the box, intonation was perfect on 3 strings, and close on the fourth. I did not expect that! However, there was some fret buzz on the D and G strings; easily fixed with a 1/4 turn of the truss rod. The one real problem I had was when I changed the pathetic roundwound strings to the D'darrio chrome flats, the nut was pulled off by the low E string. But after some Elmer's Carpenter's glue, I haven't had any more trouble. Now for the sound- through my Peavey combo, this bass had tons of low end punch and thick sustain; sounding especially great for Beatles/Stones style stuff, but can probably do just about any genre but metal(obviously). I would definitely recommend this bass, along with flatwound strings, keeping in mind that it might need some adjustment. And if you don't know the basics of setting up guitars, learn them so you don't have to pay someone else to do it.

This bass sounds, looks and plays great, very fast and supremely lightweight, I couldn't find anything wrong with it, except the neck humbucker chrome plate didn't have the best finish like the bridge one, but other than that this a great bass for the price.

My wife bought me this as a gift for our wedding in 2005, and I have always loved it. It needed setup as it was shipped direct, but that was no problem, mostly just to turn the bridge up. It is good for many purposes, and I use it for recording, practicing, and gigging in a rock band. It's well suited for early classic sound like early 'Stones and Beatles stuff, and I use it on nearly all of our acoustic stuff. Has a great tone and sound in an acoustic setting. For heavier stuff, I still use a Fender P, but I play this on nearly everything else. I am thinking about replacing the pots, as they taper too quickly in my opinion (That's the only reason I didn't give 5 stars), but otherwise is a very sound instrument. I replaced the original strings with flatwounds to suit my preference. Never had issues with it and it holds up well in gigs.

If you are looking for a violin bass this is the one to get. It plays great sounds great and is fun to play. I received it with only having to tune, every thing was set up and ready to play.Finish was in great condition, no marks or scuffs. I have put off buying one for a long time glad I went ahead and and got one.

I bought this as an impulse buy. I was not disappointed. I always wanted a hofner but they are way, way overpriced for what they are, excluding the Hofner Icon series. Out of the box it needed some set up, and I changed the strings to DÁdario Chromes flatwound which gave it a nice accoustic thump.Being a short scale base it is very easy to get around the fretboard and feels very nice.

On the negative side, the electronics need contant cleaning with 3im1 contact cleaner as the switches and knobs get sticky and crackle.Easy fixed but annoying.The finish is pretty bad with paint cracking around the neck joint due to overspray. And the sharp body edges do dig into the wrist. and the sound is nice but a bit limited.

For the money its great but could be awesome with a little bit of extra care by the maker.

Great bass. Can have that pre-1965 Beatles sound, heavier mid 1960s tone, or tight, crisp, rich or fat sound...basically, you can get any popular kind of bass ambience out of it with minimal fuss. Only issues when it came were a few tiny scratches on the pickguard, which I thought gave it some character and the bridge, which only needed to be lowered a bit (easily enough done with its two screws.) Neck was straight, tuners solid, fit and finish excellent. Once the bridge was adjusted down (dial-in process took 5 minutes total) this bass played beautifully. IMO, plays and sounds better than a Hõfner 500. I was astonished as were the other guys in our band. To me, worth way more than its selling price.